a dead end?

The very recent deal between the Taliban outfit and the Pakistan government has sent a very dangerous signal to the world. Some trends which are emerging are going to test us in the very near future. 

There is a sense of deja vu around. In 1994 the taliban ran over Kabul and overtook the governance of Afghanistan. In this very similiar way the day is not far when we might actually witness Taliban sitting in Islamabad or Pakistan broken into 2 more fragments. This is a dangerous possibility not only for India but for the world in general, because they essentially belong to no nation and their aim in only to spread hatred and violence. 

Remember the Nazis? Once accepted by the German people as a partial solution to their problems they unleashed a wave of terror that spread throughout the world. Evil prevailed when good men failed to act.

We too have had deals with some fundamentalists monsters in the past. Let us not forget how we sweet talked Jarnail Singh Bhindranwala, with the result that he grew out of control and threatened the very fabric of our nation. Finally it was Beant Singh and Mr. KPS Gill using the same terror tactics against the terrorists themselves that drove them away and secured peace and prosperity in Punjab. 

LTTE was the other devil that we tried to nurture. Mr. Rajiv Gandhi paid dearly for his inability to understand Prabhakaran and his designs. Even today some of us fail to fully appreciate the necessary and concrete steps that the Sri Lankan government is taking at the present moment. 

Whenever there seems a problem of fundamentalism I fail to understand that why does a civil government even tolerate its demand and not crush it with an iron hand. Extremism, in a modern society with the ethos of democracy and a liberal society will never and should never be accepted. An attempt to woo them will always result in invariably strengthening their beliefs and actions.

Let me also briefly touch on the aspect of what happens when the state fundamentally fails to perform its duty of protecting its citizens and then essentially arms them by forming militias. Yes I am referring to the Salwa Judam. Taliban was created by the Americans to fight the invading Soviet army but they have now turned out to be their nemesis. Pakistans non state actors are now eating away into the state. We have to be therefore extra careful when we arm our civilians be it for their own safety. The job of the state should never be outsourced. 

Once stuck in the quagmire there will be practically no escape. The ONLY way to deal with fundamentalism is have zero tolerance towards it and nip it in the bud.